Heartland Genealogy

Do you ever feel as if DNA results are breaking family connections instead of verifying them? That has certainly been my experience with my Kentucky CRAWFORD research. For years, many researchers have identified William, James, and John Crawford , who lived in the early Garrard County, Kentucky, area, as brothers. That relationship appears in online family trees and has become part of the commonly accepted reconstruction of this Crawford family. But what happens when Y-DNA says otherwise? Testing a Descendant of William Crawford Some time ago, I asked a descendant of William Crawford of Madison County, Kentucky , whom I will identify as RC , to take a Y-DNA test. Since Y-DNA is passed from father to son along the direct paternal line, I hoped RC's results might help confirm William's connection to the other Crawford men living in the area. Instead, the results created another Crawford puzzle. RC's Y-DNA placed him in the R1b-05 group of the Crawford Y-DNA Project. More rec...

Do you struggle with figuring out who’s who in records created before the 1850 census began naming everyone in a household? I certainly do—especially when researching the CRAWFORD surname in Kentucky. While using FamilySearch Full Text Search for records involving William Crawford in Madison County, Kentucky , I uncovered a 1792 court document that caught my attention. Among several men summoned to testify was: William Crawford, Junr. That little word “Junr” immediately raised a much bigger question. Which William Crawford Was He? Was this William Crawford Jr. the son of the William Crawford who later migrated to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri ? Or was he simply a younger William Crawford living in the same area who was unrelated—or perhaps only distantly related—to the older William? The designation Junior is an important clue, but it does not by itself establish a father-son relationship. Historically, Senior and Junior could be used simply to distinguish two men of the same name livi...

Do you ever find yourself retracing your research steps because you learn about a new family connection? Yep, that's me. I'm going back thru the early tax lists for Madison County, KY. I wrote about my journey with suspected CRAWFORD family members in my January 2019 post, Tax Man Cometh . At the time, I mentioned finding Edward Crawford in a different taxing district from the other Crawfords. I didn't pursue Edward for several reasons. Since he wasn't shown as a land owner, I wouldn't find any deeds for him. I also didn't have any information tying Edward to any of the other Crawfords in those early tax records. Now, I have yDNA evidence showing a relationship to Edward Crawford of Overton, Tennessee. From what I've been able to learn about this Edward Crawford, his birthplace is thought to be Pennsylvania or Virginia. I have NO evidence that the Edward Crawford in the Madison County tax lists is the same Edward Crawford who died in Overton County, Te...

Madison County Kentucky Deed book B page 269-270 page 269 Crawford to Rice

Madison County Kentucky Deed Book D page 712 and 713 FamilySearch Film #183285 This indenture made this third day of October one thousand seven hundred and ninety eight between Samuel Campbell and Mary his wife of the County of Madison, Bez' l Maxwell and Margret his wife, James Crawford and Rebeca his wife of the County of Garrard, James Anderson and Hannah his wife of the county of Madison, John Gap and Anne his wife of the County of Bourbon and William M. Morrison